Hello from the other side of the White Mountains. We’re glad to be done with them!
It’s been incredibly rainy, I think it’s rained 12 of the last 13 days we’ve been on the trail. They have record rainfall in New Hampshire and have even seen some mudslides and tornadoes. We’ve also had some beautiful views though, between rainstorms.
Our first big mountain was Mt. Moosilauke at 4,800 feet, which means that it is above treeline. Treeline at this latitude is at around 4,500 feet, which means that the environment of mountains above that elevation is alpine, consisting of rocks, shrubs, lichens and little else. It’s dangerous to be above treeline in thunderstorms because you’re the tallest thing out there, and you’re carrying two aluminum hiking poles. A walking lightening rod. It’s often foggy at those elevations in the Whites because the weather changes so quickly, so the trail is marked with rock piles, or cairns, often spaced close enough so that you can see the next in the fog. Moosilauke was our first experience above treeline and it was rainy, cold and foggy. We stayed at a shelter at 3,600 feet and caught a fleeting glimpse of the White Mountains at 5am the next morning before the fog rolled in.
The Appalachian Hiking Club runs “huts” and campgrounds throughout the Whites and thru-hikers are allowed to work for stay at these huts. They’re like very basic hostels in the mountains, often above treeline, that have “croos” of college kids cooking meals and entertaining guests. We stayed at the first hut, called Lonesome Lake, after a long 15 mile day. We had to clean the oven and freezer, but got to eat all the lasagna and soup we wanted. The “croo” that worked there also got us to dress up in costume and have a 20 minute dance party for the guests after breakfast the next morning. Andy really enjoyed wearing a tutu and I enjoyed my mumu.
We stayed at two other huts, Galehead and Madison, at which we took part in giving a talk about what it means to be a thru-hikers and answered questions from guests for an hour, such as, what do you eat?, and how did you train?. To which we said hot dogs and ice cream.
The terrain has not been so kind to Corley, with the rocks and the rain, and we ended up having to send him forward to Maine. Our buddy Rocksteady’s brothers were visiting him in Lincoln and agreed to take him to their parents home in Maine. We were so very sad to say goodbye to him and miss his companionship every day out here. We hope to get him back in the next couple of weeks, but know that until then he is enjoying himself taking long naps and hanging out with the very cool Mark & Julie Phair (thank y’all so much).
We finished the whites this morning with our eight mile hike into Gorham, NH. We ran into Karl Meltzer today who is trying to break the record for an AT thru-hike: 47 days. (www.whereskarl.com) Good luck to him, it’s taken us 151 days to get this far!
We wanted to say thanks so much to Karen, LC, Dave & Diane, Jessica and Courtney for the mail and goodies! Thanks to Rock Dancer, Stitches and Gold Thumb for the trail magic! Thanks to Richard and the Crawford Notch Campground for taking such good care of us!
Hope all’s going well with everyone out there and we’ll see y’all in a month!
Best,
susan, andy (and corley)